An Indian IT company recently sparked outrage online after it was reported that one of its managers ordered the exit of the office building padlocked to prevent employees from leaving without his permission.

A video of a security worker using heavy chains and large padlocks to seal off the exit of the Coding Ninjas office building in Gurugram, India, recently went viral on Twitter. In it, the guard claims that he had been directed by one ‘Anurag sir’, later identified as a manager with the company, to lock the exit to ensure no one can leave without his express permission. The video sparked outrage and once again brought issues like employee exploitation and a degrading working environment into the spotlight. As for the company, it recently issued a statement acknowledging the incident, describing it as an ‘anomaly’ rectified ‘within minutes’ of its occurrence.

“This was an aberration at Coding Ninjas and against our values and culture as an organization,” a Coding Ninjas spokesperson said. “We want to assure everyone that this action was not intentional. We regret the inconvenience this incident has caused.”

“We want to clarify that the incident that recently occurred in one of our offices was due to a regrettable action by an employee,” the IT company stated on Twitter the other day. “It was immediately rectified within minutes, and the employee acknowledged his mistake and apologized for the inconvenience caused.”

The incident reportedly took place over two weeks ago, at the Coding Ninjas headquarters in Gurugram, but the video showing the padlocked exit only went viral last week. Many accused the company of trying to sweep the whole ordeal under the rug, only issuing an apology and explanation after it was exposed online.

“Imagine what could happen if an accidental fire broke out. How can any organization function with that level of empathy,” one outraged Twitter user wrote.

“Micromanagement in the worst possible way,” someone else commented.

Coding Ninjas is an online learning platform offering courses in various coding languages. It was founded by Ankush Singla, Kannu Mittal, and Dhawal Parate.